Jails and Prisons

This month, President Barack Obama commuted the long sentences of 46 federal prisoners convicted of drug crimes, and over the next few days he laid out his vision for criminal justice reform in speeches to the NAACP and at the El Reno Federal Correctional Institution in Oklahoma. Prison reformers hailed these events as important steps forward in the effort to rein in the sprawling U.S. prison system. I don't think they should be so happy. Obama's speeches, unfortunately, explicitly emphasized one of the most problematic myths standing in the way of true penal reform, and the commutations implicitly did the same. In all three instances, Obama suggested that we can scale back...

Related "Jails and Prisons" Articles

PITTSBURGH (AP) — An inmate serving a life sentence at a western Pennsylvania correctional facility and his fiancée are suing the prison superintendent and a county official, saying procedural issues are illegally keeping them from getting...

The television camera rolled Friday morning as Tony Iannelli stood at the center of Northampton County Prison to film the opening of a special episode of his "Business Matters" show. Behind him, prison cells housing up to four inmates dotted the...

A Northampton County corrections officer was charged Friday with smuggling drugs and a cell phone to inmates at the county jail.Brian Keith Jenkins, 30, of Easton, faces one count of providing a controlled substance to a confined person and one count of...

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A new superintendent has been named at the maximum-security prison in upstate New York where two inmates escaped last month, and a range of new security measures has been put in place.The state correction department announced Wednesday...

Three Northampton County Prison guards suspended for nearly two months amid a federal investigation into contraband trafficking have been permitted to return to their jobs, and a fourth is expected to soon, the head of the corrections' officers union said...

MALONE, N.Y. — The latest on the manhunt following the escape of two convicted murderers from a maximum-security prison (all times local):
12:30 p.m.
The man who prosecuted Richard Matt's murder case seven years ago says the slain inmate swore back...

Graterford State Prison in Montgomery County was placed on lockdown Friday evening after a prisoner set fire to his cell and six correctional officers suffered smoke inhalation, according to police radio reports.The fire was reported about 6:55 p.m. at...

In a secluded hallway of the Northampton County Courthouse, two sheriff's deputies stand guard. Armed officers use this corridor to escort shackled prisoners to and from a holding area connected to the county prison.Each trip takes them past the cramped...

FRIENDSHIP, N.Y. (AP) — Investigators tracking two murder convicts who escaped from a northern New York prison scoured a rural area near the Pennsylvania border Sunday, saying an unconfirmed but credible report of a sighting had shifted the search...

The search for two killers landed Saturday in New York's southern tier near the Pennsylvania border, about 350 miles from the prison where they escaped two weeks ago.New York State Police spokesman Beau Duffy said officers were investigating a possible...

Four Northampton County Prison guards are on suspension from their jobs amid a federal investigation into contraband trafficking at the jail, according to the head of the corrections officers' union.
The guards were escorted off the prison's grounds in...

A wanted man who tried to escape arrest in Easton by ramming a car full of law enforcement officers will serve three to six years in state prison.In February, Dennis W. Holland was sought on a parole violation when authorities learned that he often...

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania state workers racked up nearly $227 million in overtime last year, a two-decade record high, a Sunday Times analysis of state payroll records found.Overtime surged:•To offset a loss of state workers.•To provide round-the-clock...

Northampton County Prison will roll out a job center designed to get inmates out of cells and into the workforce thanks to a $500,000 federal grant, county officials announced Friday.
The two-year grant will allow the county to provide one-on-one job...

For more than a month, 14-year-old Jamie Silvonek has been locked up at the Lehigh County Jail in Allentown, charged as an adult in her mother's killing.
The eighth-grader is incarcerated with women, not girls her own age. The younger inmates are about...

Despite three hits by drug-sniffing dogs during Wednesday's nearly seven-hour search of Northampton County Prison, no drugs were uncovered, the county's top law enforcement and corrections officials say.
"The bottom line is that no drugs were...

Pennsylvania corrections officials uncovered suspected drugs in two cells and a staff locker during a sweep of Northampton County Prison, prompting an internal investigation at the 144-year-old facility.
Seventy-nine officers from three state prisons...

HARRISBURG — Since he introduced his $33.8 billion budget nearly three months ago, Gov. Tom Wolf has toured the state, visiting schools to press his plans to spend heavily on education. On Tuesday, Wolf continued that publicity tour at a different venue —...

For nearly two hours Monday, Ricardo Montero kept courtroom observers on the edge of their seats.
First, the 69-year-old owner of the Spanish-language newspaper El Torero told a Lehigh County judge that he wanted to plead guilty to sexually assaulting...

William Davis escaped from a state correctional facility twice in early 2013 while serving a sentence for forgery and theft.
It was during those flights that the 27-year-old Allentown man took part in a pair of armed robberies, kidnapping the employees...